PHOTO: Supreme Leader’s top aide Ali Akbar Velayati with Syria’s President Assad, November 2015

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Iran’s regime has subtly adjusted its position on Syria’s crisis, saying that President Assad should have five more years in power but — for the first time — holding back from a permanent commitment to his future.

The Supreme Leader’s top aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, said on Tuesday, “We support the legitimate government of Syria. Bashar al Assad was elected as Syria’s president two years ago. The seven-year period of his presidency must be completely finished.”

Iran has previously declared that Assad’s future should not be part of political discussions, a position maintained by the President and his delegation at talks in Geneva since January. Velayati has said repeatedly since last autumn, amid trips to Damaascus, that Assad’s position is a “red line” which Iran will defend. At the same time, Iran has sharply escalated its military intervention on the ground, accompanying Russian airstrikes to prop up the Assad regime.

However, last week Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi gave a public signal that Tehran may be reconsidering its long-term commitment to President Assad personally, if not to his regime.

Alavi told Lebanon’s pro-Assad Al-Mayadeen TV that Iran had offered asylum to Assad’s family, allowing the President to concentrate on the fight against the Syrian rebellion. He said that Assad had rejected the offer since his family was “like any other in Damascus”.

Almost two weeks ago, the head of Iran’s elite Qods Force, General Qassem Soleimiani, went to Moscow for urgent meetings with Russian officials, amid advances by rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra near Syria’s largest city Aleppo. The details of the consultations were not disclosed.

See Syria Feature: Iranian Minister — Assad Refused Our Offer of Asylum for His Family

The Syrian regime staged Presidential elections in June 2014 to portray Assad’s legitimacy, with domestic political figures nominally standing against the President in the first multi-party ballot in Syrian history. Assad was declared the winner with 88.7% of the vote.

Velayati said on Tuesday that he told the Deputy Foreign Minister of Switzerland that “Syria’s territorial integrity will be respected and that the people are the future”. He said there was agreement on the “fight against terrorists”.

Ahmadinejad Lashes Out at Rouhani Government Over Assets Argument

Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has entered the argument over the US Supreme Court order affecting $2 billion of Iranian assets, accusing the Rouhani Government of weakness leading to the American pressure.

First President Eshaq Jahangiri blamed the Ahmadinejad Administration, in office from 2005 to 2013, of creating the conditions for the Court decision through mismanagement and bungled foreign policy.

The Court verdict allows families of victims of terrorism to sue for the Iranian assets.

Ahmadinejad’s office said in a statement:

The money was stolen right at the time when the Iranian Foreign Minister was in the US, holding private, long, secret, and repeated meetings with his US counterpart [John Kerry]. Isn’t the seizure of assets related to the meetings and the topics discussed by the two? Isn’t this the continuation of a long-running drama to humiliate the Iranian nation and government?

The incumbent government says that Ahmadinejad’s Cabinet members should not have trusted the Americans, or even in international rules and regulations. If that is true, why did they curb, dismantle, and shut down the country’s nuclear program, including facilities that were worth almost $30bn, based on the US Secretary of State John Kerry’s ambiguous promises without any guarantees?

The government’s trust in US statesmen and their promises, and the subsequent weakening of Iran’s international position in the past three years have led to a sharp drop in the Iranian nation’s most valuable asset, crude oil, from $105 to $35. If this remains unchanged, almost $150m a day and almost $55bn a year will be picked from Iran’s pocket and given to the negotiating sides [from the nuclear talks] or their allies.

People expect the government to avoid illogically pinning the blame on others, accept their own responsibilities, try to pursue the issue, and reclaim the nation’s rights.

Speculation is growing that Ahmadinejad is planning to run for President in 2017.

Supreme Leader Blasts US “Deception” Over Trade Restrictions

In his latest criticism of continuing US sanctions and financial restrictions, the Supreme Leader has accused Washington of “disruption and deception” to obstruct international trade with Iran.

“On paper, the Americans say banks can trade with Iran but in practice they act in such an Iranophobic way that no trade can take place with Iran,” Ayatollah Khamenei told a group of Iranian workers in Tehran on Wednesday.

Tension has risen over US sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile testing, American withholding of frozen Iranian assets, and obstacles to Iran’s access to financial markets. The Supreme Leader has cautioned the Rouhani Government over weakness in dealing with the Americans and warned that he might take over economic policy.

After meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that — while the US bar on access to America’s markets would remain — he would endeavor to remove obstacles to international markets.

Economy Minister to Head Committee Protesting US Supreme Court’s “$2 Billion” Ruling

Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia will lead a committee reviewing last week’s US Supreme Court ruling that families of victims of terrorism can sue for up to $2 billion in Iranian frozen assets.

The committee will present a report on the assets to Cabinet on May 1. It also includes the Foreign, Inteligence, and Justice Ministers and the head of the Central Bank.

In the latest protest against the ruling, the Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassador ofSwitzerland, who handles American interests.

Foreign Ministry official Mohammad Keshavarz Zadeh called the Court’s decision “an explicit violation of bilateral contractual obligations, including the 1955 treaty [Iran-United States Treaty of Amity Economic Relations and Consular Rights], as well as America’s international legal obligations and the immunity and inviolability of property and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

See Iran Daily, April 26: Tehran Protests US Supreme Court Decision Over $2 Billion